What I loved about 2009

Ah yes, the dreaded end of year list. Hey, be happy I’m only doing end of year, not DECADE – gawd, those are already gnawing at my sanity!

Also, since I am totally a Power Of Positive Thinking (POPT forever!) kind of gal, and because I already did my airing of grievances, well this is just stuff I love from ’09. I knows there’s a lot of reason to say SUCKIT09! but sometimes you just gotta focus on the bright spots.

And it’s not obvious stuff like my son’s entire football season (sob) STOP IT FOR CHRISSAKES! (oh fine), or my dream come true trip to Washington DC, or getting to meet so many awesome people in Pittsburgh (did I mention Coach Gruden in all that stuff? Yeah, I got to shake hands with the man who perfected The Scowl). No no, I shall avoid all of those personal things & obviously heart filling things like family & boyfriends blah blah blah. You all know they rock already.

I’m thinking today of all the things that ’09 provided that will keep me smiling, laughing, dancing, singing on into 2010. Not one time moments, but things that have brought and will continue to bring me joy no matter what else is going on.

In no particular order…ok, I’m going alpha since that’s how the pics are stored:

Adam Lambert – whether it be the first version we met on American Idol:

Or the current glammed up Glittery Alien Adam:

I’ve loved everything he has done. His For Your Entertainment CD is constantly being played in my car. SportsBoy walks around humming tunes from it all the time 🙂 I’ve seen every tv appearance and performance and this man is just a musical, entertainment monster who I know will keep me smiling and dancing for years. It is rather fitting that the opening song on his CD is called Music Again and the chorus is “You make me want to listen to music again” Oh yes, Adam, you did indeed do that. For the first time ever I have an itunes account and I’m exploring more new artists (such as Lady Gaga & Kings of Leon) based on Adam’s tweets and I feel like a whole new world of music has been opened up to me.

GLEE!!

The single Best New TV Show of the year hands down!! It’s not just me, friends from all walks of life are watching this show and loving it. Of course I see a connection between the rise of Glee just after Adam walked onto the AI stage. A product of years of Glee Club and youth theater productions himself, it was just perfect that the show debuted right after his season of Idol. He is the ultimate Glee Club success story. And he MUST appear on this show!! Although, I must say, that the cast is just brilliant as it is.

The only one I knew really well previously was Jane Lynch – and lord knows her character was an instant classic. I think by now we all know how Sue C’s it! But the rest are all legitimate Broadway level stars (many coming straight from Broadway to Glee). The covers of the songs they have done are just fantastic revivals of some classic songs. Shoot, some are right from this year! I used my itunes gift cards from Christmas to download the two volumes of songs and I am LOVING them! The Musical genre is BACK and I am dancing and singing and laughing (and sometimes crying) with these characters. I sure hope they keep up the high level of work in Season 2. Which starts in April. Because of that damn American Idol show and haven’t I already mentioned that they can just stop that already because I already HAVE my ultimate Idol?

iPhone

You don’t need another picture of that. But my little orange and black buddy is my constant companion. It carries the music of the two prior honorees, pictures, and access to all my social media that keeps me connected to all of you guys. During the week unless I really do have work to do at home, I don’t even open my laptop anymore and I love it. It’s made my life more relaxed just having it around. While I should not be spending money on anything extra, this one was worth it Big Time.

Twitter (and Facebook)

While I was on these back in ’07, it was ’09 that saw the explosion amongst the general (non geek) population. Thanks to Facebook I was able to see a high school buddy twice this year. My experiences in Pittsburgh were enhance because I felt less nervous around some of the public figures since I follow them or have them as friends. The rise of Social Media sites such as these has made the world even smaller still. I’ve maintained closer connections with far away friends than I could have EVER done via phone or snail mail or even email! No matter what your religious beliefs or non beliefs may be, it’s a very warm fuzzy feeling knowing that if needed, I could enlist the power of prayers,  good vibrations & healing thoughts from literally hundreds of people should *anything* go sideways in my life.

Working out

Thanks to my friend Asa (need a Swedish keyboard to do this properly, but that’s pronounced Oh-sah) who invited me to her 40th birthday party in April, I’ve gotten myself into the best shape of my life. Sitting here on the precipice of 45 & I gotta say I’ve got some pretty nice abs 🙂 I’m sorry if it sounds braggy, but I have to sing out the praises of these workouts. Shoot, I gave up getting my nails done in order to pay for them! My nails gals!! You old timers know – I’ve been getting those done forever and then some, right? No more. At least once a week and maybe twice I go to the group sessions and sweat my ass off. You all know that I didn’t make it through that first session. Had to sit down & stop the room from spinning. But now? Well last night, class was canceled but I was ready to move so I did a home version of their exercises and I damn well kicked my own ass with it! 4 lb hand weights turned into 10 here at home. I’m regularly using 12 at the gym and sometimes 15.  15?! That’s nuts!! But I feel noticeably stronger in my upper body – my arms always were my weak spot. I’ve got more aerobic stamina (tho still not great with running) and my energy levels are way more steady overall throughout the day and I sleep like a rock at night. I also don’t feel like I *need* 8 hours every night. 6 or 7 does just fine I think because I am sleeping more deeply overall so I’m rejuvenated more easily.  Shocking, I know, but I’ve stayed up past 10pm quite a bit with no ill effects!

So there you go – a few of my favorite things from 2009 which thankfully will NOT go away in 2010. They better not, because I need them ALL to keep the joy flowing and the sanity in check 🙂